Vacationland

Director Todd Verow's unexpected turn into sentimental coming-out drama yields a predictable result: Nothing new to see here. Attractive but unconvincing leads - these 20-somethings are supposed to be in high school? - dribbling out banalities about confused, adolescent sexuality doesn't strike me as the best way to explore the promise of Anonymous, which was equally self-involved, but also honest, raw and, by comparison, not all that maudlin. I have no idea what to make of this drab and uninspiring movie other than to hope that Verow finds another career. Sure, it's unpretentious, but so's Mike Huckabee.

No single attribute, however, is as awful as Jim Dwyer's chintzy, electronic score, which grates non-stop, wall-to-wall for the full length of this movie. If I'd seen this, and heard this, in a theatre, I would have walked out. Thankfully, on my laptop, I could scrub and hit mute.

A gay themed drama centered around two high school males who become intimately involved in Maine of all places. Movie starts out bland, gets a little more interesting and then gets darker and weirder. The actors playing the 4 or 5 principal parts appear wholesome enough, yet their dialogue and actions would suggest otherwise. They shoplift, drink excessively, steal an old man's prescription drugs to enhance their alcohol abuse, have sex for money, steal money from the cash register, flunk tests, smoke pot, experiment sexually and throw around the F word with ease. One of these leads is the high school football star and the other is the head cheer leader. Not exactly your typical "elite" high schoolers. But it makes for some amusing situations and funny, unexpected dialogue. These students are clearly on a difficult path that may lead them to disaster, but we end on a happy note with the two gay characters, both of whom are attractive enough without being twinks, gazing into the horizon with hope in their eyes. Decent lead acting. Interesting themes and counter character portrayals. Basically, has everything a teen should NEVER do.

One of the worst if not the worst written movies I have ever seen. It felt disjointed and all over the place as at times it looked like scenes were missing with how random it was. To top it off I felt many of the characters weren't very likable and the movie sort of has an underlying plot which seemed like an afterthought as it wasn't focused on much. There were various things in the movie which needed to be explored more or period really which would have vastly improved it because as it stands it just feels incoherent. It's hard to even say there was an underlying plot as the movie has no real main plot. The movie doesn't necessarily need a plot beyond watching the main characters experience growth except I didn't really see that in this film.

The further removed from watching this film, the more chance I had to change my initial impressions of it. There was some very nice acting by Brad Hallowell--very impressive in his film debut and in the starring role,no less (and just an incredibly sexy, adorable guy). Gregory J. Lucas was also good as Andrew.

The female roles were poorly cast/poorly written/poorly acted in some combination at almost every time. Also, while the guys seemed to be able to play younger (18), the women playing the high school girls seemed way too old and the woman playing Joe's mother was RIDICULOUSLY too young.

The high school girls were caricatures -- overly silly and just didn't have real roles. The sister was also not believable--although I think it was more the writing that her acting.

Story-wise, it was enjoyable and seemed to have a nice arc. However, there were huge leaps in the plot--sometimes between scenes, sometimes right in the MIDDLE of scenes. There were also some twists/tangents that didn't really fit to the story. The script and the film could both have used some better editing and the direction seemed non-existent in stretches.

All that said, I would still recommend seeing this movie--on the strength of the acting by the leads, their on-screen chemistry, and the viewer's interest in learning what happens to them.

I suffered through this hoping it would come together. My main criticism, if I can narrow it to one, is there was no character development. It seemed random in its plot also. I'm sure the writer had somewhat of a story, but he was unable to express it well.